The Reliability of the Bible I Evidence and Inerrancy Seidel Abel Boanerges I. Authorship: Who wrote the Bible? All of Scripture was authored by God, but written by men as they were led by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:20-21: Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Written over 1500 years 40 different Authors: Authors from different walks of life, a king, a military leader, a philosopher, a poet, a musician, a tax collector, a shepherd, a historian, a fisherman, a cupbearer and a rabbi. Different Places: Wilderness, dungeon, hillsides, prisons, under exile and while travelling. Different Moods: Height s of joy, depths of sorrow, confusion, doubt, conviction and uncertainty. Different Literary Styles: Poetry, songs, romance, satire, biography, autobiography, law, prophecy, parable, narratives and allegory. 3 Continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. 3 Languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Categorization: Pentateuch, OT History, Poetry, Major Prophets, Minor Prophets, Gospels, NT History, Pauline Epistles, General Epistles, Prophecy. Though some say that the New Testament was written 100-300 years after Christ died, the truth is that it was written before the close of the first century by those who either knew Christ personally, had encountered him, or were under the direction of those who were His disciples. II. Formation of the Bible The word Bible comes from the Greek word τὰ βιβλία (ta biblía) meaning The books. Now who decides what to include in the Bible? 1
The question concerning how it was decided which books would become part of the Bible is the question of canonicity. The word canon comes from the root word reed. The reed was used as a measuring rod, and came to mean standard. Old Testament: The documentary evidence shows that the Old Testament canon was established between 1500-150 B.C. The books were traditionally 24 in number and were divided into three sections Law, Prophets and Writings. The number differs to our current number of 39 because we divide books such as Samuel, Kings, Chronicles in two different books. All the Minor Prophets were classified as one book called The Twelve. Our protestant Bible has the same 39 books of the Old Testament as the Jewish Tanakh. However, in the Catholic Bible, their Old Testament has 46 books. It has extra books known as the Apocrypha (Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach and Baruch). Apocrypha: Greek apokryphos = obscure; Medieval Latin apocryphus = secret, or non-canonical. They were added to the catholic bible in 1545 Council of Trent There are a few reasons why the Apocrypha is a part of the Hebrew canon. 1 They abound in historical and geographical inaccuracies and anachronisms. For example, the book of Judith incorrectly says that Nebuchadnezzar was the king of the Assyrians when he was the king of the Babylonians. They teach false doctrines and foster practices that are at variance with scripture. For example, prayers for the dead, paying money for their sins (2 Macc 12) and smoke from fish s heart drives away evil spirits (Tobit) They lack distinctive elements such as prophetic power and religious feeling. Additional reasons why they are not part of our protestant canon. 2 Jesus and the New Testament writers never quoted from the Apocrypha. No Christian Council recognised them as inspired. Many Church Fathers spoke out against the Apocrypha such as Origen, Cyril of Jerusalem and Athanasius. Martin Luther and other reformers rejected them. 1 Merrill F. Unger, Unger's Bible Dictionary, 3 rd edn (Moody Press, 1966), p.85. 2 Norman Geisler and William Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), p.272-273. 2
New Testament: Justin Martyr (A.D 100-165) referring to the Eucharist, writes in his First Apology 1:67 And on the day called Sunday there is a gathering together and memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits. However, he does not list the books of the New Testament. Figure 1 Acceptance of New Testament Books 3 It seems that the first Christians started to collect the writings of the apostles at a very early stage and started to regard them as authoritative and divinely inspired. One of the first lists of the books of the Bible we get is from A.D 90. It is called the Muratorian Canon (Please see Figure 1). Muratorian Canon gets its name from its discoverer L. A. Muratori who first discovered it. The 4th century church historian, Eusebius agreed with most of the list but disputed James, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, and Jude, but Revelation continued to bewilder him. The full list of the 27 books comes from Bishop Athanasius in A.D 367. Canon criteria apostolicity (apostolic age), catholicity (universal) and orthodoxy. Apologists Geisler and Nix give a few reasons why other books such as Gospel of Hebrews, Shepherd of Hermas, Letter of Barnabas and Revelation of Peter did not make it into the New Testament canon.4 3 4 th Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, 4 edn (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008), p.73. Norman Geisler and William Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), p.135. 3
None of them enjoyed any more than a temporary or local recognition. Most of them never had anything more than a semi-canonical status. No major Church council included them as inspired. Most of them footnoted their sources as the canonical books. Gospel of Thomas, 200 AD: Jesus created sparrows out of clay. A child ran and dashed against his shoulder, Jesus rebuked him and he died. A quote from the gospel - Simon Peter says to them: "Let Mary go out from our midst, for women are not worthy of life!" Jesus says: "See, I will draw her so as to make her male so that she also may become a living spirit like you males. For every woman who has become male will enter the Kingdom of heaven." III. Reliability: Is the content if the Biblical manuscripts reliable? Ø The integrity of any ancient document is determined by the number of documented manuscripts that still exist. The time factor and the content need to be given a careful study. Manuscript evidence for ancient writings. 5 Author Written Time Span No. of Manuscripts Caesar 100-44 BC 1000 Years 10 Plato 427-347 BC 1200 Years 7 Homer (Iliad) 900 BC 500 Years 643 Tacitus 100 AD 1000 Years 20 New Testament 40-100 AD 25-50 Years 24,000 Ø 5,300 Greek Manuscripts, 10,000 Latin Manuscripts and 9,300 early portions in various languages such as Syrian, Coptic, Armenian, Gothic & Ethiopic. Ø Bruce Metzger says Out of the 20,000 lines of the New Testament, it is safe for anyone to say that there is at least 99.6% documentary evidence readily available. Ø Good examples of manuscripts are Codex Vaticanus and Codex Siniaticus which are parchment copies of the entire NT from the 4th Century (325-450 AD). Ø There are approx 86,000 quotations of the early church fathers. If the entire NT disappears overnight, we can still build whole of the NT with just an exception of 20 verses. 6 5 Amy Orr-Ewing, Why Trust the Bible, IVP, 2005, 39. 4
Ø The Dead Sea Scrolls (68 AD) 40,000 inscribed fragments found in the Qumran Caves. Confirms 95% of our Old Testament and the other 5% are only minor variations that don t affect the content of the text. They also found some of the NT fragments as well. Ø New Testament confirms the Old Testament. There are numerous citations by Jesus, the apostles and various others that confirm the truthfulness of the OT. Ø The modern archaeological evidences amazingly confirm the reliability of the both Old and New Testaments. Quran: Angel Gabriel reciting the verses to Muhammed in 610 AD, and compiled by Abu Bakr after 125 years after Mohammed. Canonized by Uthman. Upon the canonization of the Qur'an, Uthman ordered the burning of all personal copies of the Qur'an. Buddhism: Pali Tipitaka dates back to 500 BC. Earliest text, 250 BC 250 years difference. Compilation 100 AD 600 years difference Hinduism: Vedas date back to 1500 BC. Earliest text, 500 BC 1000 years difference. Compilation 200 BC 1300 years difference. IV. Alleged Contradictions and Discrepancies Inerrancy means that when all the facts are known, the scriptures in their original autographs, properly interpreted, will show to be wholly true in everything they affirm. 7 The scriptures were recorded in ancient times using ancient standards. Bible is the word of God that means that there are no errors or contradictions, but that doesn t mean that there are no difficulties in it. Augustine once said, If we are perplexed by any apparent contradiction in scripture, it is not allowable to say that the author of the book is mistaken, but either the manuscript is faulty, or the translation is wrong or you have not understood. 8 Principles in understanding these alleged contradiction and discrepancies. 1. Understand the context of the passage. 6 Orr-Ewing, Trust, 42. 7 McDowell, Evidence, 338. 8 Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe, The Big Book of Bible Difficulties, Baker Books, 1992, 15. 5
2. The Unexplained is not necessary unexplainable. 3. Interpret difficult passages in the light of the clear ones. 4. Fallible interpretations don t mean fallible revelation. 5. Just because the report is incomplete does not mean it s false. 6. New Testament citations of the Old Testament need not always be exact. 7. The Bible does not necessarily approve of all it records. 8. The Bible may use round numbers as well as exact numbers. 9. An error in the copy does not equate an error in the original. 10. Later revelation supercedes previous revelation. Looking at some of the examples: Activity Ø Was Jesus crucified on the 3 rd Hour or the 6 th Hour Mark 15:25 & John 19:14 Ø Was it God or Satan who moved David to count Israel and Judah 2 Samuel 24:1 & 1 Chronicles 21:1 Questions for Reflection: 1. Name two or three new aspects that you learnt in today s lecture. a. b. c. 2. Please discuss how these new aspects inform or impact your faith now? 6